What to do with an 80's Heart???

Picked up this peg rack at a garage sale for $1.00 (actually bought 2 of them). I am not a heart person - I'm a star person so I needed to do something with this. After hitting LOTS of garage sales this summer I don't think I'm the only non-heart person! There are lots of shelves out there with hearts on them, eagerly awaiting a prim make over. I don't remember on which of your wonderful blogs I saw an idea that inspired me, but a big thanks goes out to YOU! (Now I know that it was Janene - thank you Janene!) I decided to stitch the word "blessings" on osnaburg then I attached that to a stained piece of ticking.

I nailed the ticking onto the shelf with 4 rusty old nails, one in each corner. The paint on the peg rack is Navy by Olde Century Paints, sanded the edges and stained with Pecan gel stain from Olde Century. Now I just need DH to attach the hangers on the back tonight and it's ready to go!

So, what can you do with an 80's heart??? Let's see your prim heart makeovers. ~Ann

A Redo and A No Need To!

No luck at the garage sales for finding any Folk Art dishes by Pfaltzgraff, but I did find a couple of neat wood pieces that I just couldn't live without. The first shelf is not blue as it appears, but hunter green - not my color, so......

with a nice coat of black paint, a little sanding around the edges and a finish with a wipe down of dark stain, I now have a new shelf in the living room. The flash really glares on this picture. Sorry - I tried without the flash, with the light in the room on and off, guess I should have just waited for daylight hours tomorrow. I'm a little impatient! Not a bad little shelf for the $3.00 I paid plus my elbow grease and paint.

Look very closely at this next picture, as my newest treasure is a little hard to pick out. There is a small crate on the hooked rug. I saw this crate and just had to have it too, I've never seen anything quite like it before. Want to take a guess at the price? How about 50 cents! Found it at a 3 day garage sale on day number 3 - the gal marked it down from $2.00 to 50 cents that morning. It's perfectly old, beat up and grungy, I'm not going to change a thing. I plan on making some pumpkins this week to put in it.

Must head off to bed, school starts tomorrow. Where did our summer go and more importantly where have the last 14 years gone? DH and I have a freshman in high school, someone please tell me how this happens!

Have a good week. ~Ann

Pfaltzgraff Folk Art Anyone?

Reading your blogs, I am beginning to understand why it is that I never find any Pfaltzgraff Folk Art dishes at garage sales or thrift stores. We ALL use these dishes! I know that Rondell and Melissa both have it. Who else out there in Blog land has these dishes?

My cousin in NY also uses them, she gave me the pitcher - she had 2 and thought I'd like one. I sent her 8 salad plates in exchange. I found the blue goblets at a garage sale, I only got 3 of the small ones and 6 of the taller ones. The only other piece I found at a garage sale was a votive holder and I only paid 25 cents for it!

I made this little basket as a thank you gift for a gal that donated her basketweaving supplies and handles to Sauder Village. She wasn't weaving anymore and wanted to get rid of everything - she said it was making her feel guilty just sitting there not being used.

I grunged up a tea light and placed a couple of pip berry pieces in the basket.

I'm off to a garage sale to see if I can find some Folk Art! ~Ann

I'm getting old!

I must warn you as you start reading this post that it's a hodge podge of pictures and viewpoints!
I just love Black eyed susans and cone flowers. My coneflowers are starting to fade - they sure don't last as long as the black eyed susans. I need a little help with this side of the house, I planted hostas and black eyed susans here several years ago. The flowers have taken over and the poor hostas need a transplant - the help I need is DH to volunteer to dig them up and move them for me. I signed up for the Harvest Swap that Char is hosting. As I sat down to work on my items, I noticed that it's getting harder and harder for me to see little things. I went to the store yesterday and bought myself a pair of reading glasses - WOW I can't believe how much they helped me last night. I already wear contacts but I'm afraid bifocals aren't that far off anymore. I'll make do with these over the counter glasses as long as I can.

The above basket is one of my best sellers. It's a chairside basket with feet. Historically feet were used on wool drying baskets to keep the basket off the floor. Once you sheared your sheep, you needed to wash the wool prior to carding and spinning. The bottoms of the baskets would be an "open" bottom - one with holes in it so the water could drain and the air could circulate. This updated version has a closed bottom so that knitting needles, crochet hooks, rug hooks, etc won't fall through the bottom. It's on my 1803 Ohio Farm Baskets Blog if you are interested. ~Ann

Vacation Fun & Tote Baskets

Can you guess where we are in this photo? If you guessed Niagara Falls NY you are correct. We spent last week with my Mom in Upstate NY. On our way home we stopped at Niagara Falls. I can't believe that we've never been there - I grew up in Upstate NY, came to Ohio to college and drove on the NY State Thruway past the falls dozens of times. In the 20 years we've been married we've driven past dozens more times.



I am glad that we waited until our youngest was 8 so we could enjoy it more. We took the Cave of the Winds tour. An elevator takes you to the base of the falls and then you walk on the boardwalk and can just about stand under the falls. How fun is that when you are a kid! We had a good laugh as we left the "Hurricane Deck" - our youngest DS complained about the hood of his raincoat pulling on his neck and being tight. Up on the deck his hood had fallen back and filled with water, he had at least a gallon in there! We told him he could have a couple of gold fish swimming around in there!





The next view is from the top of the hill behind our family home. My mom & dad moved 13 years ago, just out of the picture on the left, but my brother and family live on the family farm now. Being a flat-lander now in NW Ohio I forgot how beautiful the country is there. My kids are funny - commenting on the "mountains", I keep telling them they are just "hills".

Of course we had to have a picture of Mamie with her Ohio grand kids. Why couldn't I get a good picture? In every picture, one of the kids was acting up and I couldn't get them all to just smile nicely!

I have to share the following baskets I made yesterday - It's Rug Hooking week at Sauder Village where I work. We had almost 1,000 guests today.

Rug Hookers like project baskets! Last year I sold everyone I could make of this first basket, the handles are Shaker tape.

First time for this pattern. Love it - the dark brown reed is smoked reed alternating with Navy dyed weavers. I dye all my own reed and always add a little black to Navy to darken it up just a little. Handles on this one are leather.

Both baskets will be posted on my selling blog as well.

Hope you are all having a good week. ~Ann